Nestlé quiet on Hershey sale

Swiss food group Nestle on Friday declined to comment on market
talk it might want to buy US confectionery maker Hershey, but said
it would be keen on regaining its top-selling Kit Kat brand in the
United States.

Swiss food group Nestle on Friday declined to comment on market
talk it might want to buy US confectionery maker Hershey, but said
it would be keen on regaining its top-selling Kit Kat brand in the
United States.

Kit Kat chocolate bars are manufactured by Hershey Foods under
licence in North America.

The proposed sale of the 108-year-old confectionery company in
Hershey, Pennsylvania, was announced last week by the Hershey
Trust, a powerful for-profit corporation with trust duties. Tempers
are high in the small confectionery town with workers, politicians
and town citizens taking to the streets at the weekend in protest
against the sale.

With $5.4 billion (€5.5bn) in assets, the Hershey Trust controls
77 per cent of Hershey Foods' voting power and could strike a deal
worth up to $12 billion (€12.2bn) with a buyer.

The Financial Times​ newspaper reported on Friday that
Nestle was a front-runner in the race for Hershey, along with Kraft
and Cadbury Schweppes.

"We have said that we would not comment on whether we are
bidders or not,"​ Nestle spokesman Francois Perroud told
Reuters. "We have also said that we are going to act vigorously
to regain the Kit Kat brand (in North America) and, quite
evidently, we are following with interest what is happening in our
sector."​

Kit Kat is Nestle's best-selling individual confectionery
product globally. The North American rights to the brand would
revert to Nestle should Hershey be sold to another company,
therefore making the US group worth less to other potential
bidders.

"We're clearly going to make sure that license gets back to
us in case there is a change of control (at Hershey),"​ Perroud
said.